Darkwing Duck (cartoon)
Darkwing Duck is a 1991 Disney TV Series. It featured the adventures of Darkwing Duck and his family as they fight crime in St. Canard. This series had 91 episodes, running for three seasons. The original run ran from 1991-1992 and also aired on the Disney Afternoon. Development Television Unproduced episodes When an episode is proposed and a basic outline written, it receives a production code regardless of whether or not it actually gets made. Holes in the production code list of a television series indicate episodes that have been considered but ultimately not produced. Darkwing Duck has six missing production codes, namely 4308-003, 4308-005, 4308-011, 4308-054, 4308-087, and 4308-088. There is nothing confirmed as to what the subjects of these unproduced episodes are, but the first two leave room for estimation. Due to the appearance of her model in the episode "In Like Blunt" and those of her robot puppies in "Toys Czar Us", it is certain Anna Matronic was designed for the cartoon and therefore was supposed to have at least one episode of her own. Instead, her main appearance occured in a booklet titled "The Silly Canine Caper". It is possible this booklet represents the cancelled episode and that in turn makes it likely the episode was production code 4308-003. Darkwing learning to appreciate Launchpad fits as early season 1 material, the way the story starts with the fate of S.H.U.S.H. agents prior to Darkwing's involvement mimics "Water Way to Go" and "In Like Blunt", respectively 4308-001 and 4308-002, and the same company also adapted "Dirty Money", 4308-004, into a booklet. An early placement also works well with the fact that Darkwing receives his radar cape from a non-specific S.H.U.S.H. scientist, as Sara Bellum would not be introduced until "Beauty and the Beet" and "Heavy Mental", which line up with 4308-018 and 4308-020. As for 4308-005, that production code falls between "Dirty Money", the last of a trio of S.H.U.S.H.-centric episodes in which Gosalyn does not have a role, and "A Duck by Any Other Name", which is the first episode to feature Drake, Gosalyn, and Launchpad living in the home Drake promised in "Darkly Dawns the Duck". In "A Duck by Any Other Name", Drake's family has the home and already knows the Muddlefoots, while Honker already knows Drake and Darkwing are the same person. Honker is the only one of the Darkwing team not to have an episode explaining how he got involved. A guess following these observations is that 4308-005 was meant to be Honker's introduction episode. The episodes with production numbers 4308-001 to 4308-013 notably have no repetition in villain-of-the-day. It isn't until 4308-014 that Steelbeak is the first to return, namely in "Trading Faces" after starring in "Water Way to Go". This pushes the assumption that 4308-011 — and 4308-005 — would've featured a villain not in the other intended-twelve episodes, but whether said villain was discarded like Matronic or moved to a later episode is anyone's guess. 4308-054 is entirely a mystery, while 4308-087 and 4308-088 are part of the third season. It is peculiar for adjacent episodes to go unproduced and could point at a cancelled two-parter. Inspired by "Negaduck" and "Life, the Negaverse and Everything", Tad Stones did pitch a Posiverse story to ABC, but the company wasn't interested. He has since forgotten what the story would have entailed.Flapping Terror's Exclusive Tad Stones Interview Stones also has been rather vocal that if the series had continued beyond three seasons, he would've created more origin episodes for Darkwing.[https://darkwingblog.wordpress.com/content/origins/ Origins: Usenet posts from Darkwing Duck creator, Tad Stones, who posted them to alt.fan.disney.afternoon in 1999 at The Darkwing Duck Blog] References Category:Episodes